SHORT: MAN’S SHOCKING SAVIOR IN DEADLY WOLF ATTACK

Unlikely heroine

In a flash out of nowhere, the wolf is mauling Muratbek Bakhtygali. No warning, no growling or any sound at all, the huge, dank beast is on the 70-year-old farmer knocking him down in the courtyard just outside his home in rural West Kazakhstan.

Its becoming a mess fast. Muratbek’s nose is off and he is flailing wildly in a desperate attempt to keep the crazed wolf from ripping out his throat. In shock, not understanding yet exactly what exactly is happening, the old man is no match for the powerful predator. “So this is how it ends,” he thinks.

Becket Shadmanov doesn’t take any shit from wolves

There’s a yelp and the wolf disappears for a moment only to hit the ground almost immediately a few feet away. Snarling, the wolf gathers itself to finish the attack, but a huge shape waddles in between predator and prey. Muratbek’s milk cow flipped the attacking wolf off the farmer with her horns and now placidly stands between life and death over the farmer against the fearsome carnivore.

The wolf does what predators do and repeatedly charges the cow attempting to make her bolt. The milk cow doesn’t flinch and holds fast against her primeval fear. The wolf gives up and runs off attacking three more people in the village until another old farmer, Becket Shadmanov, sees what’s happening and beats it to death with a crowbar. Russians.

The wolf was tested and rabies could not be confirmed. All victims were treated for rabies.

Janice (pause) Wolf is in the back pasture of the animal refuge she operates in Arkansas. Her 11-month-old Watusi calf blocks her way on the path. She pushes on his massive horns to move him out of the way, but with a jerk of its head the bullock sends her sprawling.

From the ground she spots the venomous Copperhead coiled on the path where she would have walked had the young bull not blocked her way.

Isn’t such a display of contrary and intentional selflessness (not to mention problem solving skills and their part in it all) then an indication of a consciousness developed far beyond what we consider for a “dumb beast?”